From Amigoe: Spokesperson blunders: ‘There is no declaration on sex’; January 21, 2006

Steve Cohen has the feeling that he didn’t do that bad in Dr. Phil’s show

(Didn’t do that bad? Steve Cohen may want to read what his supporters are saying after the appearance on the Dr. Phil Show. He does not have to worry about the people who questioned his motives prior to the interview, but those that supported him. What was the Amigoe comment? That was the second time that the spokesperson of the Strategic Communications Task Force had failed big time.)

ARUBA — Steve Cohen, spokesperson of the Strategic Communications Task Force, indicated that he didn’t mean to say that the two main suspects had actually told him that they had consensual sex with Natalee Holloway. “None of the boys have declared that they had consensual sex with her. The official viewpoint on this has not changed.”

Cohen says that he made the statement after questions on the possible interrogation of Holloway’s fellow travelers. He only wanted to give an example of a reason why these young folks have to be interrogated. He says that it has to do with amongst others Holloway’s position at the time she got into the car with the boys. “Come to think about it; I should have used the word ‘if’ in front of the statement; that would have made it clear.” Meanwhile, there is a declaration on the website ‘Aruba Truth’ that clarifies Cohen’s words.

“Two of the boys said they had consensual sex with her. Whether consensual or not, depends on her ability to be conscious and make a choice,” said Cohen.

Cohen was guest in Dr. Phil’s TV-show of yesterday afternoon. “It was a very difficult experience. I knew that I was going to be the only person to defend Aruba against three other persons, Beth Twitty, her lawyer, and Dr. Phil”, said Cohen, who had a very hard time rectifying the statements he made in December last, about the main suspects being interrogated within 10 days. That was the second time that the spokesperson of the Strategic Communications Task Force had failed big time.

ARUBA Ã¢â‚¬” The spokesperson of the Strategic Communications Task Force, Steve Cohen, said that two of the Holloway-suspects had sex with Natalee Holloway, something that the authorities have not confirmed up till now.

Beth Twitty, mother of the disappeared American teenager has always said that Joran van der Sloot had told the police on June13th that he had sex with Holloway in his house. But the authorities have always maintained that there is no such declaration.Read more

Today on the Dr. Phil Show some interesting comments come from Steve Cohen. Cohen, consultant to the Aruban government, who has gone on TV among the many from The Aruba Strategic Communications Task Force and professed the suspects innocence, now says they are guilty. After all this time that Aruba, the Aruban government and the Tourism industry has defended Aruba and the three suspects at the same time we are now told that they think the suspects are guilty.

Dr. Phil asks him, “From your opinion, based on what you know, do you believe that these boys are guilty of wrongdoing here?” Steve says that he does. “Do the prosecutors believe they are guilty of wrongdoing?” Steve says that they do. “Do you believe that [the boys] have available, intimate knowledge of what happened to her that night?” Again, Steve confirms that he does.

Steve explains, “Forensic materials continue to be collected. I think we’ve got our hands on some forensic material now that may actually open up the doors to the final results of this case.”

Then comes the amazing statement of the interview with Steve Cohen. Many have questioned from the outset the position that Steve Cohen held and the conflict of interest of the many relationships he had with private sector Aruban Tourism Association, Strategic Communication Task Force, consultant to the Aruban government and access to the ALE information. The comments continue:

Dr. Phil says, “You say that you are a consultant paid by the tourism industry that’s also working in conjunction with the government, and in the same breath you say that you are the ones that had to let these boys out of jail?”

“I was the guy who had to let them out,” says Steve. “I opened the jail door for all three of them. It was nobody else. It was me. And my feeling was that we had lost. And then we didn’t lose because we all sat together and said, ‘We can figure this out.’”

In an interview with Travel Video TV, Steve Cohen (Consultant to the Aruban Government) made some rather peculiar and enlightening statements in an attempt to paint Aruba in a brighter light in hopes of stemming the decline of tourism. In a article designed to help the Aruban tourism from its disastrous decline, Steve Cohen makes a couple of comments that seem to shed some light on some rather debated issues.

This, according to SMDG Consulting Team chairman Stephen Cohen, adviser to the Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA) and the Aruba Strategic Communications Task Force who spoke at the Caribbean Marketplace being held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cohen’s team is tasked with bringing out the facts in the case and establishing a more orderly approach in dealing with the media in a crisis situation. A seasoned television news expert from CBS, Cohen has been part of the SMDG team since the beginning of the investigations

One can speculate as defining this Task Force’s role as bringing out the facts or spining the facts for Aruba’s advantage. This Task Force and Steve Cohen do report to the Aruban government. It was not all that long ago we were told by Steve Cohen the following “facts in the case”. We all now know how that turned out.

It is expected that he will be re-questioned somewhere in the next 10-day period. I doubt that they will bring him back for questioning immediately, but it will be in that period. And also, it is expected the Kalpoes will also be brought in for questioning.

Now after seven months of searching the island from the landfill to the ocean and all parts in-between, Aruban investigators are mounting a search of the California Light House area. Steve Cohen would also make such snide comments as the Mountain Brook teens did not wait around for interrogation”? Do you in Aruba actually contemplate why people are boycotting your island or just refuse by choice not to go? Maybe its because of such ongoing comments? If the Aruban authorities actually took this case seriously from the outset, they would not have allowed anyone to leave Aruba prior to being questioned.

If current findings are true, Cohen said they are going to accelerate their efforts. Extensive search for forensic evidence continues. Yesterday, 50 members of the Aruban police department searched extensively through the dune by the lighthouse in search for clues. “Anything DNA that is identified to be of Natalee’s will allow us to bring a strong case forward against the three boys. We are also getting to finally talk to some of the Alabama teens who left on that plane and did not wait around for interrogation,” said Cohen.

Steve Cohen further goes on to continue to blame the victim asking that the most important thing is to understand Natalee’s mental state at the time of her disappearance. That’s curious, most people think that its most important to find those that committed a criminal act against her, as the Prosecutors Office has previously stated.

Aruba believes it is most important to get a hold of her mental state and most importantly, Natalee’s physical state at the time of disappearance.

Only a very short time ago Steve Cohen was heard to be saying the following to Rita Cosby:

It is expected that he will be re-questioned somewhere in the next 10-day period. I doubt that they will bring him back for questioning immediately, but it will be in that period. And also, it is expected the Kalpoes will also be brought in for questioning.

Twelve days later looks like Steve Cohen has another story to tell. This time not so optimistic and much different.

Well, I have to say, I really think, you know, we all misjudged the process, that we were very enthusiastic at that stage in the investigation we’d be able to get this piece done and moved forward.

No. I’d have to say that our confidence level is not at the highest level.

One of the most amazing comments to come out of this case after seven months, “we all misjudged the process”. This coming from the Special Consultant to the Aruban Government who has access to the ALE and Prosecutors Office. All these connections and they “all misjudged the process”.

We pretty much assumed that Gerold Dompig would be bring Joran Van der Sloot in for questioning when he returned from Holland to Aruba for Christmas vacation from college. Dompig had made references to such, while many wondered why he would delay such questioning and not go to Holland months ago? He certainly has made it known he would come to Mountain Brook, AL as soon as possible. What is a bit more perplexing is the comment made by Steve Cohen, adviser to the Aruban Government.

It is expected that he will be re-questioned somewhere in the next 10-day period. I doubt that they will bring him back for questioning immediately, but it will be in that period. And also, it is expected the Kalpoes will also be brought in for questioning.

What would possess the ALE to give Joran and the Kalpoes the opportunity to have ten days to meet and once again confirm their stories? Will they meet again pool side at the VDS residence again? That same residence that was never fully searched. Just like the initial ten days of this investigation that was botched when the ALE did not consider these people the primary suspects and search their homes. Who does this? Who repeats the same mistakes that most likely doomed this investigation from the outset? Is this the concerted effort that the Aruban delegation promised Representative Bachus last week?

Rep. Spencer Bachus said he came away from a Friday meeting with Aruban officials with the sense that they plan to vigorously pursue leads in the disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway.

The ALE wants to interview the Mountain Brook teens immediately, yet they have the three prime suspects under their nose and are going to wait ten days? Is this their idea of “vigorously pursue leads“? This is just the appearance that is projected to the United States that is the reason why people feel such a distrust with the way the investigation has gone in the Natalee Holloway disappearance.

If there are discrepancies in the three suspects stories as Steve Cohen points out, why would they wait until Joran Van der Sloot comes back to Aruba to re-interview the Kalpoe brothers? Then, the ALE would wait another 10 days after that? As Dave Holloway went on to say, “You know, it’s good to see that they give them all advance notice and tell them exactly what they need to know and what they need to be questioned on.” Is it any wonder why Dave Holloway has questioned the direction of this investigation and the ALE? Whether the three suspects attorneys knew about the questioning previously or not is not really the question. What would be is why was Steve Cohen privy to this information? The attorney for Natalee Holloway’s family brings up a valid point and one that has remained an issue from the outset and the communication issue that has hampered this investigation and caused the riff between the family and Aruban authorities.

But once again, I wish the family or myself would not hear it through the media and be the last ones to know, that we’d be kept in the loop by the media and the journalists and the Strategic Communications Task Force and be privy to some of this information.